This article is part of a guide to Miami from FT Globetrotter
For unparalleled luxury: Four Seasons Hotel at the Surf Club
Set in a striking 1930s building — the site of a legendary private beach club where throughout the years the likes of Winston Churchill, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra holed up — the Four Seasons at the Surf Club reopened eight years ago in its new guise as a luxury hotel, and rapidly earned a reputation for offering unmatched splendour.
At the heart of the historic building, fringed with palm trees and velvet furnishings beneath grand, vaulted ceilings, lies the Champagne Bar, a nod to the debauchery of the venue’s early years that is abuzz after dark with live music, entertainment and chic locals and visitors. Also not to be missed is the excellent in-house Italian restaurant, The Lido, where chef Marco Calenzo brings a dose of Milanese cuisine to Miami with delicate handmade pasta dishes and refined Italian classics. Superchef Thomas Keller is in the mix too with his Michelin-starred The Surf Club, which specialises in upscale American cuisine: think luscious Caesar salads, oysters Rockefeller and a signature rib-eye.
The Four Seasons at the Surf Club is the place for travellers who want it all (and are happy to pay handsomely for it): privacy, space and comfort with top-end amenities, an oceanfront, resort experience, jaw-dropping views (do try to catch the sunrise from a beach-facing terrace), private beach access, three swimming pools for adults, all ages and children (and a games pitch for the latter), an impressive wellness facility and some of the best bars and restaurants in all of Miami. And all with an air of stealth wealth in Surfside, the northern end of Miami Beach and a reprieve from the hustle and bustle down south. The Four Seasons at the Surf Club has been named one of the World’s 50 Best Hotels and awarded two Michelin Keys (the new designation the French group recently started applying to hotels) — and it’s very easy to understand why. Doubles from $1,500. 9011 Collins Ave, Surfside, FL 33154; fourseasons.com/surfside; Directions
For the South Beach scene: The Setai
While this hotel is certainly family friendly, consider saving The Setai for a child-free trip. The adults-only treats are too fun to skip: heady nights at one of the sultry in-house venues, lazy mornings lying in the ultra-comfortable beds or quiet relaxation by one of its three swimming pools, each a different temperature (75, 85 and 90F). And don’t miss the Valmont spa overlooking the ocean.
The Setai was designed by hotel maestro John-Michel Gathy with an east-meets-Miami aesthetic inspired by the Asian Art Deco movement, featuring original black granite bricks from Shanghai, natural wood and low lighting. The most striking architectural feature is Jaya, the glamorous restaurant at the heart of the building where guests take breakfast, and later revellers enjoy south Asian cuisine, cocktails and a popular weekend brunch. It’s built around a lush, palm tree-adorned water feature that lies below a retractable roof, where a DJ plays each night and acrobats or dancers perform.
Above, rooms are quiet (even those that look on to frenetic Collins Avenue), and the Ocean suites, housed in an adjacent high-rise along with the Setai’s residences, offer panoramic views of the beach and beyond. No details were overlooked: there are even built-in power outlets of varying shapes and sizes so international travellers need not bring clunky converters. Sumptuousness is a recurring theme, with musky-scented toiletries (a collaboration between the hotel and Palm Angels, a local streetwear label), Dux beds, each composed of a mattress topper and a specialist spring system that together are meant to foster deeper sleep, and even the showers offer hedonistic approach to basic hygiene, with water that barrels down like a waterfall. Doubles from $900. 2001 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139; thesetaihotel.com; Directions
For culture vultures: The Betsy South Beach
A stay at this independent boutique hotel on Miami Beach’s famed Ocean Drive, housed inside a pre-Deco, Georgian-style manor with chic, contemporary interiors, is all about soaking up the vibe. Guests will want to spend plenty of time in the cleverly appointed communal spaces, whether that’s one of the hotel’s two swimming pools (one rooftop, one garden), restaurants and bars (the Carlton Room Café serves some of the best coffee in Miami) or its art galleries. There’s also live music in the lobby every evening, alongside a robust programme of other cultural activities and events, from poetry readings to book signings.
The Betsy is particularly vibrant during Miami Art Week, when it hosts a plethora of special exhibitions and events, though it is awash with art year round, its hallways and galleries mostly curated by co-owner Lesley Goldwasser, an avid collector and friendly New York transplant who owns the hotel with her husband. The vivacious, silver-haired Goldwasser is happy to offer guests tours of the displays — and you’ll likely spy her with her two “CEOs” (Canine Executive Officers) Betsy and Rosa (the golden retrievers are lovingly immortalised in the hotel’s permanent collection). However, the entire staff offers the sort of personalised service that makes a stay here special. Throw in stylish, comfortable rooms with all the mod cons, and The Betsy is not only wonderfully charming but a very hard place to leave. Doubles from $250. 1440 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139; thebetsyhotel.com; Directions
For families: Loews Miami Beach
With 790 rooms and suites, the Loews is one of the largest-capacity hotels on the Beach — and everything here is scaled accordingly. Bedrooms are generously sized, so families won’t feel like sardines packed into a single space. And there’s plenty for guests of all ages to do at or around the property too, with its ideal oceanfront location in the heart of the Art Deco district and within striking distance of family-friendly sites such as South Pointe, Lummus Park and Jungle Island.
The Loews’ bean-shaped swimming pool offers a welcoming space for children to splash or adults to laze or sunbathe. Sun cream and after-sun are provided, as are vats of gloriously cold lemon water. If staying over the weekend, arrive early to secure a lounger, otherwise you may be directed to the beach (the hotel has its own private section, which guests can access directly from the pool). Room rates include beach-chair hire (though umbrellas cost extra, as does an upgrade to a cabana), while jet skis, kayaks and paddle-boards are also available for rental. The family-friendliness extends to those travelling with pets too: the room-service menu even includes meals for cats and dogs that were developed with a licensed veterinarian, such as “Bow-Wow Beef Tenderloin”. There’s something pleasing here for every type of guest, big and small (and animal). Doubles from $369. 1601 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139; loewshotels.com/miami-beach; Directions
For the young (and young at heart): EAST Miami
Miamians quickly came to love Sugar, one of the city’s first rooftop bars that spawned a slew of copycats after its launch in 2016. Sugar, and the adjacent Hong Kong-inspired speakeasy, Tea Room, are often in the after-dark calendars of the city’s young professionals and on the lips of local cocktail writers. The 40th-floor bars, however, are also attached to a contemporary hotel: EAST Miami, the first North American offering from Hong Kong-based Swire Group, the conglomerate behind Cathay Pacific airlines and a handful of other design-centric hotels in Asia.
East fills a gap for travellers in a neighbourhood that is largely home to bog-standard business hotels or luxury players in need of an upgrade, offering a stylish, city-break or work-trip bolt-hole at an approachable price. Housed in a high-rise next to Brickell City Centre, an indoor-outdoor shopping mall and something of an architectural marvel, East has a youthful feel — most obvious in the consistent stream of twentysomethings heading to the roof for drinks, and a large artwork of Tupac Shakur sitting atop a basketball hoop that greets guests on arrival. Plus everything here is for the tech-proficient, from the lifts to the light switches and a tablet-run room (I’m embarrassed to admit how long I fiddled with each). Rooms are modern and minimalist, with a muted palette, natural wood features and splashes of gold across the walls; many have balconies and bathtubs offering various views of Brickell’s gleaming high-rises. Extravagance comes to the fore elsewhere, namely at the hotel’s bars and at Quinto, the pan-South American and open-fire restaurant that features a lush, jungle-like terrace. But the best place to take in the trendy and tropical vibe is on the pool deck, where one could easily while away a day in its Scandi-inspired cabanas. Doubles from $309. 788 Brickell Plaza, Miami, FL 33131; easthotels.com/en/miami; Directions
For a resort-style stay: The Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne
The ultimate test of a hotel room is its smell. The bouquet of too many is a combination of cleaning chemicals, stale air and new upholstery — or of whatever wretched potpourri the management uses to conceal those odours. My room at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, located on an island just south of Miami Beach, smelled great: a little like the ocean and a little like clean sheets. The door to the balcony opens, the air-conditioning clicks off automatically and in comes the breeze. The other great appeal of the RCKB is that it feels like a proper beach resort, but is just a short car ride from downtown Miami. The designers have made this corner of a crowded island feel isolated and private. Miami is loud; this hotel is not. It’s clearly a family hotel — the kids’ pool is big and central, rather than being pushed off to the side, for example — but it’s also easy to find a peaceful spot. The poolside and beach staff are helpful without being pushy. Doubles from $569. 455 Grand Bay Drive, Key Biscayne, Miami, FL 33149; ritzcarlton.com; Directions Robert Armstrong
The writers were guests of the hotels featured
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